I have had a pigeon loft for about 4 years, but I am looking for folks ideas of time saving tips for food and water. I put food out every day and refill the water containers daily as well. I have about 25 pigeons (give or take a few) at all times. So, if you have come up with a set up that requires a person to refill water and food less often I would like to hear about them. It seems like I have seen some on here, but it has been years and I could not find the threads. Thanks.

JT, Don't read this as me being a smartass. But I buy the larger sizes of Waterer and Feeder for my Coop which houses more birds (feral shooter pigeons in the large one and homers in the smaller one). I can go a week on the water and 3 days on the food with my current setup in the large coop which had a couple dozen pigeons for several months.

AverageGuy wrote:JT, Don't read this as me being a smartass. But I buy the larger sizes of Waterer and Feeder for my Coop which houses more birds (feral shooter pigeons in the large one and homers in the smaller one). I can go a week on the water and 3 days on the food with my current setup in the large coop which had a couple dozen pigeons for several months.

x2. I've currently go around 14 homers and shooters so I load up two feeders and two watering jugs every 4 or 5 days, and refill when I clean the loft. I've seen several auto watering setups for sale on the larger pigeon supply websites that you might try, but frankly the dirty birds make such a mess that reloading food and water every 4 or 5 days is the smallest part of the job. The loft simply needs to be cleaned.

Also, it wont kill them to go without food for a night either, and in fact I had a hard core pigeon guy (whom I was buyin birds from) tell me not to feed them the night before you are going to take them out to fly (or train with, in our case) as it makes them more motivated to come home. So basically I don't sweat it if I don't get home to clean the loft for 5 or 6 days, but they have 4 or 5 days of food.

One of our members had a loft that was split for homers and shooters. He used two of the small ones for watering. He put a small plastic barrel on the side of his loft and ran a hose with splitter to each fountain. By mounting the barrel a few feet off the ground it used gravity flow to supply water to each fountain. The fountains are adjustable to control the amount of water you want available. He made his own bowl guard because the one in the picture was a little small. He would refill the barrel as needed. For feed he had two large gravity flow feeders. They would be easy to make using a five gallon plastic bucket if you don't want to buy one. Pigeons are sloppy eaters and will spill more than they eat so I put a catch pan under my feeders to prevent wasting feed.

Water Fountain.jpg (34.44 KiB) Viewed 3347 times

If you need more water this one has a float and can be connected to a garden hose or a supply like the barrel.

For water I use the one similar to the first pic in covey rises post. I have mine connected directly to the water in the barn. It just hangs from pac pipe. I also made a bigger cover. I had a 5 gallon deer feeder for awhile but it went through batteries like crazy. The one for the chickens lasts a couple of months.

For the feeder, I put a Y connector on the top and ran an extension out the side of the house with a screw on cap. This way I can add feed without having to enter the house.

For the water, I just drilled a 1" hole in the lid of the bucket and ran some PVC from the bucket through a hole in the wall to a funnel on the outside, so I can also add water without entering the coop. I also added an electric stock tank heater to the plastic water bucket to keep it from freezing in the winter.

In practice I check and reload my birds food and water at least every 2 - 3 days. But I've gone on vacation for a week, and the birds still had plenty of food and water when I got back. Luckily, cleaning isn't too bad for me since I built my bird house on a trailer with a mesh bottom. The bird house has a wire bottom too, so the scat mostly falls through to the ground. All I have to do is a light spray down with a hose once or twice per season. When the scat starts to pile up on the ground, I just hook up the trailer and move it a few feet.

Big waterer in my ho.er loft of 25 or so. I just use a pan to feed them.out of and another pan for grit. For the homers, they get des moines pigeon feed and different blends depending o. Season.The kill bird are just in a 6 x10 dog kennel that I chicken wired. Pigeon watere and a pan of food. But for the kills I just use an all flock food.I also keep the ducks with the kills. This creates a problem as the ducks distroy the water and I have lost pigeons due to drinking duck.poo water.....i am guessing. So, I think I am going to have to hang the waters for the pigeons.

One thing I do that I thinknis important is Inhave seperate bird bags for the kill birds and the homers. Same with carriers etc. I try not to cross contaminate the 2 flocks.

I have also developed a system for when I train with people that dont know my homers. I only use white homers as the non shooting birds and the grey birds as kill birds. This way there is no confusion on which birds get shot.

Urban_Redneck wrote:Wow, my homers have it good, they get fresh water and food twice a day! No wonder even the young ones fly the 25 miles home without any training.

That is pretty dedicated. I have been doing this for a number of years and regularly keep 5 other species of birds around for training/personal consumption (chicken eggs and occasional meat) that I also feed and water, so any time savings is helpful. I am interested in working my birds up to 5 to 10 miles away though for training at other fields. Doesn't sound like you have had any trouble getting them to home from distance. I have not tried as I have been afraid I'd lose most of them, but this winter when I'm hunting and not training as much (and feeding less birds would be nice anyway) I plan to give it a shot.